From the history of medicine. The life of wonderful doctors

(1832-1889) Russian doctor and public figure

Sergei Petrovich Botkin was born on September 17, 1832 in the family of a large Moscow tea merchant. Until the age of fifteen he was raised at home.

The Botkin House in the 1830-1850s was considered one of the most famous cultural centers in Moscow. V. Belinsky, N. Stankevich, I. Turgenev visited here, and the historian T. Granovsky lived constantly. Botkin had five sons - Vasily, Mikhail, Peter, Sergei and Dmitry. All of them, except Sergei, were engaged in literature and art, collecting paintings and sculptures. Sergei also received an excellent education at home, and then graduated from a Moscow private boarding school. He dreamed of becoming a mathematician and entering Moscow University. However, at that time, the admission of applicants was extremely limited, since there was a decree according to which only graduates of state gymnasiums were accepted into all faculties, except for medicine, so Botkin managed to enroll only in the medical faculty.

The Crimean War found him a fourth-year student. Having graduated from the university in 1855, he immediately went to Simferopol, where he began working in a hospital under the leadership of the famous surgeon N.I. Pirogov. Even during his student years, the clinical talent of Sergei Petrovich Botkin clearly manifested itself, so he decided to devote himself to studying the extensive science of internal diseases. And after the end of the war, he went abroad, where he enthusiastically worked in the laboratories and clinics of the largest European scientists of that time - the physiologist C. Bernard and the famous therapist R. Virchow. Under their guidance, he not only improved his medical skills, but also gained experience as a researcher. From that time on, Sergei Botkin spent his entire life trying to combine scientific research with practical work.

In 1860, he returned to Russia and defended his doctoral dissertation in St. Petersburg at the Medical-Surgical Academy. And in 1861, the 29-year-old scientist was elected professor of the department of the academic therapeutic clinic, which he led until the end of his life.

What new did Sergei Botkin bring to the clinic at first? In the history of not only Russian, but also world medicine, many very important undertakings and discoveries are associated with his name. In the work of Sergei Petrovich, the doctor’s talent is amazingly combined with excellent organizational skills. He was the first to introduce European teaching methods in Russia, in which practice was connected with scientific work. Sergei Petrovich Botkin was also the first to introduce mandatory autopsies of the dead into medical practice.

While researching various diseases, he became the first scientist in world medicine to describe infectious liver diseases, and came to the conclusion that they are caused by even smaller microorganisms than bacteria.

The hypothesis expressed by him was subsequently completely confirmed; researchers established the viral nature of hepatitis, which was called Botkin's disease.

In 1860-1861 he organized a clinical experimental laboratory. There were no clinical laboratories abroad with such a diverse range of work. Here the influence of the central nervous system on the activity of various organs was studied, a method of artificial blood circulation was developed, and from here medicinal herbs - foxglove, lily of the valley and many other folk medicine, tested by Botkin's students - began their journey to hospitals and outpatient clinics. Young Ivan Petrovich Pavlov worked in this laboratory for ten years and conducted his research here.

Modern medicine also owes Sergei Petrovich Botkin the fact that he was one of the first to understand the most important role the central nervous system plays in the human body. It turned out that the disease does not affect a single part of the body or organ, but affects the entire body through the nervous system. Only by understanding this can the doctor properly treat the patient. Botkin developed this idea in his works.

The scientist constantly strived to ensure that healthcare in Russia was accessible to the widest segments of the population. On his initiative, charitable hospitals were established in St. Petersburg and Moscow, in which assistance was provided free of charge. For this, Sergei Botkin created a special charitable partnership, where he combined contributions made by the largest Russian entrepreneurs.

The Botkin Clinic has become a real center of medical science. It produced many talented doctors, including the great physiologist I. Pavlov.

In 1873, Sergei Petrovich Botkin was appointed personal physician, that is, a doctor responsible for the health of the reigning family.

He lived an intense, creative, working life, caring not about his own glory, but about ensuring that his works enriched science and benefited the sick.

An outstanding scientist combined his scientific activities with social ones, and responded to many events that worried leading people of that time. Sergei Petrovich ardently supported those who defended women's rights to higher medical education; with his active participation, the first women's medical courses were opened in St. Petersburg in 1872. Together with his friend, physiologist I.M. Sechenov, he was the first in Russia to provide female doctors with the opportunity to work in the department he headed.

For many years, Sergei Botkin was the permanent chairman of the Duma commission on protecting people's health, improving the sanitary condition of St. Petersburg and hospital and outpatient care in it. With the society of doctors, he organized a shelter for elderly lonely doctors.

Sergei Petrovich Botkin laid the foundation for Russian medical literature; for many years (1869-1889) he edited and published at his own expense the journal “Archive of the Clinic of Internal Diseases”, and the “Weekly Clinical Newspaper” was published under his editorship.

The outstanding scientist died on December 27, 1889. He was a representative of those tireless energetic figures who never stopped working for the benefit of the Russian people. The famous Botkin Hospital in Moscow is named after the doctor.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

(5 (17) September 1832, Moscow - 12 (24) December 1889, Menton) - Russian general practitioner and public figure, created the doctrine of the body as a single whole, subject to the will. N. S. Professor of the Medical-Surgical Academy (since 1861). Participant in the Crimean (1855) and Russian-Turkish (1877) wars.

Biography

Sergei Petrovich Botkin comes from a merchant family involved in the tea trade. As a child, I wanted to become a mathematician, but by the time I entered the university, Emperor Nicholas issued a decree that allowed free access only to the medical faculty. He studied at the medical faculty of Moscow University, studied with famous professors - physiologist I. T. Glebov, pathologist A. I. Polunin, surgeon F. I. Inozemtsev, therapist I. V. Varvinsky. During his studies he was friends with I.M. Sechenov. In the summer of 1854 he participated in the elimination of the cholera epidemic in Moscow. In 1855 he graduated from the university and received the title of “doctor with honors.” In the same year, he participated in the Crimean campaign under the leadership of N.I. Pirogov as a resident of the Simferopol hospital. Already during this period, S. P. Botkin formed the concept of military medicine and proper nutrition of soldiers:

Received extensive training in various areas of medicine abroad. In the clinic of Professor Hirsch in Königsberg, in the pathological institute of R. Wichow in Würzburg and Berlin, in the laboratory of Hoppe-Seyler, in the clinic of the famous therapist L. Traube, neurologist Romberg, syphilidologist Berensprung in Berlin, with physiologist K. Ludwig and clinician Oppolzer in Vienna, in England, as well as in the laboratory of experimental physiologist C. Bernard, in the clinics of Barthez, Bushu, Trusseau and others in Paris. Botkin's first works are published in the Virchow Archive.

At the end of 1859, Yakubovich, Botkin, Sechenov, Bockers and Jung were invited to the therapy clinic of the Medical-Surgical Academy (St. Petersburg). On August 10, 1860, Botkin moved to St. Petersburg, defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic: “On the absorption of fat in the intestines” and was appointed acting adjunct at the therapeutic clinic headed by Professor P. D. Shipulinsky. Soon, however, the relationship between Botkin and Shipulinsky deteriorated, and the latter was forced to resign. However, the academy conference did not want to transfer the leadership of the clinic to the talented Botkin; only a letter from students and doctors allowed him to take the vacant position in 1861, and at the age of 29 he received the title of professor.

S.P. Botkin was elected to the department of faculty therapy at the age of 28 and headed it for 30 years. Botkin’s daily routine looked like this: he arrived at the clinic at 10 am, from 11 o’clock chemical and microscopic studies carried out by students and young doctors began, as well as research work with senior students, from 1 pm he gave lectures to students, after the lecture he followed rounds and examination of outpatients, from 17 to 19 hours - evening rounds of the clinic, from 19 to 21 hours - lectures for associate professors, to which everyone was allowed. After this, Botkin returned home, where he had dinner and prepared for the next day, but after 12 o’clock at night he devoted attention to his favorite activity - playing the cello. In his letter to N.A. Belogolovy, Botkin notes:

The first stone of S.P. Botkin’s fame as a fine diagnostician was laid in 1862 after his lifetime diagnosis of portal vein thrombosis. After the diagnosis was made, the patient lived for several weeks. Ill-wishers hoped for a mistake. S.P. Botkin paid a lot of attention to cholelithiasis, which he himself suffered from for a long time. He pointed to the role of infection in the formation of stones. He emphasized the clinical diversity of this disease. The scientist believed that until the doctor discovered the erupted stone, his diagnosis remained a hypothesis. In his work “On reflex phenomena in the vessels of the skin and on reflex sweat,” S. P. Botkin gives a number of interesting clinical observations, one of which demonstrates that when a stone passes through the bile ducts, the upper and lower extremities become cold, the skin of the chest becomes hot and the temperature in armpit rises to 40°C.

Thanks to their outstanding teaching abilities, Botkin’s clinic produced professors who headed departments at medical faculties of Russian universities V. T. Pokrovsky, N. I. Sokolov, V. N. Sirotinin, V. A. Manassein, Yu. T. Chudnovsky, A. G. Polotebnov, N. P. Simanovsky, A. F. Prussak, P. I. Uspensky, D. I. Koshlakov, L. V. Popov, A. A. Nechaev, M. V. Yanovsky, M. M. Volkov , N. Ya. Chistovich, etc. A total of 87 graduates of his clinic became doctors of medicine, of which more than 40 were awarded the title of professor in 12 medical specialties. S.P. Botkin acted as an official opponent on dissertations 66 times.

In 1865, S.P. Botkin initiated the creation of an epidemiological society, the purpose of which was to combat the spread of epidemic diseases. The society was small, but active; its printed organ was the Epidemic Leaflet. As part of the society's work, Botkin studied the epidemic of plague, cholera, typhus, smallpox, diphtheria and scarlet fever. Observing liver diseases occurring with high fever, S.P. Botkin was the first to describe a disease that before him was considered gastrointestinal catarrh with mechanical retention of bile. This disease was manifested not only by jaundice, but also by an enlarged spleen, and sometimes by kidney disease. The disease, as S.P. Botkin pointed out, lasts for several weeks, and in the future can lead to a serious complication - cirrhosis of the liver. Looking for the causes of the disease, S.P. Botkin came to the conclusion that the source of infection was contaminated food products. He classified this type of catarrhal jaundice as an infectious disease, which was later confirmed (Botkin's disease, viral hepatitis A).

Botkin stood at the origins of women's medical education in Russia. In 1874 he organized a school for paramedics, and in 1876 - “Women’s medical courses”. In 1866, Botkin was appointed a member of the Medical Council of the Ministry of the Interior. An active life position and interest in social activities allowed the medical community to elect S.P. Botkin in 1878 as chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors, which he led until his death. At the same time, he was a member of the main management of the Society for the Care of the Wounded, a member of the St. Petersburg Duma and deputy chairman of the Public Health Commission of St. Petersburg. Fame and medical talent played a role, and S.P. Botkin became the first Russian physician of the imperial family in history. S.P. Botkin laid the foundation for sanitary organizations in St. Petersburg. From the first years of the existence of the Alexander Barracks Hospital (now the Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital named after S.P. Botkin), he became its medical trustee. Largely thanks to the activities of S.P. Botkin, the first ambulance appeared as a prototype of the future Ambulance.

He died on December 24, 1889 at 12:30 in Menton. Botkin was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. At this time there was a congress of Russian doctors, the work of which was interrupted. The coffin with Botkin’s body was carried in their arms for 4 miles.

Family

Father - Pyotr Kononovich Botkin, merchant of the first guild and owner of a large tea company, mother - Anna Ivanovna Postnikova. There were 25 children in the family of S.P. Botkin’s parents; Sergei was the 11th child from his father’s second marriage.

Brothers: collector D. P. Botkin, writer V. P. Botkin, artist M. P. Botkin. Sisters: M. P. Botkina - wife of the poet A. A. Fet

Children: Alexander Botkin (naval officer), Pyotr Botkin (c. 1865-1937, diplomat), Sergei Botkin, Evgeny Botkin (1865-1918, life physician), Victor Botkin.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

1860-1864 - Spasskaya street, building 1;
1878-12/12/1889 - Galernaya street, house 77 (memorial plaque).

Memory

There are Botkin hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Also in the city of Orel, a hospital is named after him.

In 1898, in memory of the services of the outstanding doctor, Samarskaya Street in St. Petersburg was renamed Botkinskaya Street. There is a memorial plaque on house number 20.

On May 25, 1908, a monument was erected in the park in front of the clinic at the corner of Botkinskaya Street and Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Prospekt (sculptor V. A. Beklemishev).

In the 1920s, a bust by I. Ya. Ginzburg (1896) was installed on the territory of the Botkin Hospital.

He was the 11th child in the family, born from his father’s second marriage and raised under the supervision and influence of his brother Vasily. Already at an early age he was distinguished by outstanding abilities and curiosity.

Until the age of 15, Botkin was raised at home; in 1847 he entered the private boarding school Ennes, where he studied for three years and was considered one of the best students.

In August 1850, Botkin became a student at the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University, graduating in 1855. Botkin was the only one in his class who passed the exam not for the title of doctor, but for the degree of doctor.

After graduating from the university, he, together with the sanitary detachment of surgeon Nikolai Pirogov, took part in the Crimean campaign, acting as a resident of the Simferopol military hospital. Working in a military hospital gave the doctor the necessary practical skills.

In December 1855, Botkin returned to Moscow and then went abroad to complete his education.

In 1856-1860, Sergei Botkin was on a business trip abroad. He visited Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and France. During a business trip in Vienna, Botkin married the daughter of a Moscow official, Anastasia Krylova.

In 1860, Botkin moved to St. Petersburg, where he defended his doctoral dissertation “On the absorption of fat in the intestines” at the Medical-Surgical Academy.

In 1861 he was elected professor of the department of the academic therapeutic clinic.

In 1860-1861, Botkin was the first in Russia to create an experimental laboratory at his clinic, where he performed physical and chemical analyzes and studied the physiological and pharmacological effects of medicinal substances. He also studied questions of physiology and pathology of the body, artificially reproduced various pathological processes in animals (aortic aneurysm, nephritis, trophic skin disorders) in order to reveal their patterns. Research carried out in Botkin's laboratory laid the foundation for experimental pharmacology, therapy and pathology in Russian medicine.

In 1861, Sergei Botkin opened the first free outpatient clinic in the history of clinical treatment of patients at his clinic.

In 1862, he was subjected to a search and interrogation in connection with his visit to Alexander Herzen in London.

Since 1870, Botkin worked as an honorary physician. In 1871, he was entrusted with the treatment of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. In subsequent years, he accompanied the empress several times abroad and to the south of Russia, for which he had to stop lecturing at the academy.

In 1872, Botkin received the title of academician.

In the same year, in St. Petersburg, with his participation, women's medical courses were opened - the world's first higher medical school for women.

In 1875, he married a second time to Ekaterina Mordvinova, after the death of his first wife.

In 1877, during the Russian-Turkish War, Botkin spent about seven months on the Balkan front, where he accompanied Emperor Alexander II. As a physician of Alexander II, he achieved preventive quinization of troops, fought to improve the nutrition of soldiers, made rounds of hospitals, and gave consultations.

In 1878, he was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors in memory of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov and remained in this post until the end of his life. He achieved the construction of a free hospital by the society, which was opened in 1880 (Alexandrovskaya Barracks Hospital, now the S.P. Botkin Hospital). Botkin’s initiative was taken up, and free hospitals began to be built in other large cities of Russia with funds from medical societies.

Since 1881, Botkin, being a member of the St. Petersburg City Duma and deputy chairman of the Duma Commission of Public Health, laid the foundation for the organization of sanitary affairs in St. Petersburg, introduced the institute of sanitary doctors, laid the foundation for free home care, organized the institute of “Duma” doctors, created the institute of school sanitary doctors, Council of Chief Physicians of St. Petersburg Hospitals.

Botkin was the chairman of the government commission to develop measures to improve the sanitary condition of the country and reduce mortality in Russia (1886).

By the end of his career, he was an honorary member of 35 Russian medical scientific societies and nine foreign ones.

Botkin became the founder of scientific clinical medicine. He outlined his clinical and theoretical views on medical issues in three editions of the “Course of the Clinic of Internal Diseases” (1867, 1868, 1875) and in 35 lectures recorded and published by his students (“Clinical Lectures of Professor S.P. Botkin”, 3rd issue , 1885‑1891).

In his views, Botkin proceeded from an understanding of the organism as a whole, located in inextricable unity and connection with its environment. Botkin created a new direction in medicine, characterized by Ivan Pavlov as the direction of nervism. Botkin is responsible for a large number of outstanding discoveries in the field of medicine. He was the first to express the idea of the specificity of protein structure in various organs; was the first (1883) to point out that catarrhal jaundice is an infectious disease (currently this disease is called “Botkin’s disease”), developed the diagnosis and clinic of a prolapsed and “wandering” kidney.

Botkin published the “Archive of the Clinic of Internal Diseases of Professor S. P. Botkin” (1869‑1889) and the “Weekly Clinical Newspaper” (1881‑1889), renamed in 1890 the “Botkin Hospital Newspaper”. These publications published the scientific works of his students, among whom were Ivan Pavlov, Alexey Polotebnov, Vyacheslav Manassein and many other outstanding Russian doctors and scientists.

Botkin died of heart disease December 24 (December 12, old style) 1889 in Menton (France) and was buried in St. Petersburg.

Botkin Sergey Petrovich is a great Russian clinician and therapist. Born in Moscow in 1832. After completing a course at the best Moscow boarding school, in 1850 he entered the medical faculty of Moscow University. After graduating from the medical faculty, in 1855, S.P. Botkin went to the Crimea to the theater of military operations and worked as a resident at the Simferopol military hospital for more than 3 months. Here his immediate supervisor was the famous Russian surgeon Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov.

At the end of the Crimean campaign, S.P. Botkin returned to Moscow. He became convinced that he needed to continue his medical education, and at the beginning of 1856 he went abroad. In Germany, he worked at the pathological institute of R. Virchow, the founder of cellular pathology, and at the same time studied physiological and pathological chemistry.

In the fall of 1800, Botkin returned to St. Petersburg; where he successfully defended his dissertation on the topic “On the absorption of fat in the intestines” and in the same year was appointed adjunct of the academic (faculty) therapeutic clinic of the Medical-Surgical Academy. Botkin became an ordinary professor at this clinic. From the very first year of joining the department, Sergei Petrovich created a laboratory at the clinic, which he initially managed himself, and from 1878, for ten years, the laboratory was managed by I. P. Pavlov. Here, in addition to clinical tests, the pharmacological effects of new drugs were studied, and experiments were carried out on animals with the aim of artificially reproducing pathological processes and elucidating their pathogenesis.

Botkin introduced physiological and laboratory experimental research methods into the clinic, and considered clinical experimentation as a means of revealing the mechanism of diseases. Botkin’s clinical and theoretical views are most fully presented in the course of the clinic of internal diseases and clinical lectures.

Botkin's attention was constantly drawn to the "sick" issues of the capital's hospitals. Despite being overloaded with work in the clinic, in supervising the dissertation works of numerous students, in the Society of Russian Doctors in St. Petersburg as its chairman, and as a physician, he was the permanent chairman of the Duma Commission for the Protection of Public Health, Improving the Sanitary Condition of St. Petersburg and Hospital and Outpatient Care in him.

Created a new direction in medicine, called I.P. Pavlovian nervism. Modern medicine owes Botkin the fact that he was one of the first to notice the important role the central nervous system plays in the human body. He realized that the disease does not affect a single part of the body or organ, but affects the entire body through the nervous system. Only by comprehending this can the doctor treat the patient correctly. Botkin developed this idea in his works. His scientific views were taken up by the majority of Russian advanced doctors, so we talk about Botkin as the creator of the national scientific medical school. Science owes Botkin other major discoveries. In the early days of microbiology, he argued that the disease known as jaundice was caused by microorganisms. This prediction came true: scientists found the causative agent of infectious jaundice, which is now called Botkin's disease. Botkin made many wonderful predictions. In his lectures, he expressed, for example, confidence that special centers will be found in the human brain that control hematopoiesis, sweat secretion, heat regulation, etc. The existence of such centers has now been proven. Botkin was the first to express the idea of the specificity of protein structure in various organs; established the infectious nature of the disease - viral hepatitis, previously known as “catarrhal jaundice”; developed the diagnosis and clinic of the wandering kidney.

Botkin published the "Archive of the Clinic of Internal Diseases of Professor S.P. Botkin" (1869-1889) and the "Weekly Clinical Newspaper" (1881-1889). He was an active fighter for women's equality. In 1872 he participated in the organization of Women's medical courses. In 1861, he opened the first free outpatient clinic in the history of clinical treatment of patients at his clinic. In 1878, he was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors in memory of N.I. Pirogov and remained in this post until the end of his life. For the first time in Russia, he achieved the construction of a free hospital, opened in 1880 (Alexandrovskaya Barracks Hospital, now the S.P. Botkin Infectious Diseases Hospital) in St. Petersburg. In 1881, Botkin was elected a member of the City Duma, deputy chairman of the Public Health Commission, and the creator of the system of Duma doctors and school sanitary supervision. Since 1886, trustee of all city hospitals and almshouses of St. Petersburg. He introduced the Institute of Sanitary Doctors and developed measures to improve sanitary conditions and reduce mortality in Russia (1886). He is the creator of a scientific school of therapists: out of 106 of his students, 85 became doctors of science, 45 headed clinical departments in St. Petersburg and other cities.

Botkin’s printed works: “Congestion formed in the blood vessels of the mesentery of the frog, from the action of medium salts” (“Military medical journal.” 1853); “Quantitative determination of protein and sugar in urine using a polarization apparatus” (Moscow Medical Gaz., 1858, No. 13); also “Determination of milk sugar” (“Moscow medical gas.”, 1882, No. 19); “On the absorption of fat in the intestines” (“Military medical journal,” 1860); “On the physiological effect of atropine sulfate” (“Med. Vestn.”, 1861, No. 29); "Ueber die Wirkung der Salze auf die circulirenden rothen Blutkorperchen" ("Virchow Archive", XV, 173, 1858); "Zur Frage von dem Stofwechsel der Fette in thierischen Organismen" ("Virchow Archive", XV, 380);" "Untersuchungen uber die Diffusion organischer Stoffe: 1) Diffusionsverhaltnisse der rothen Blutkorperchen ausserhalb des Organismus" ("Virchow Archive", XX, 26); 2) “Ueber die Eigenthumlichkeiten des Gallenpigment hinsichtlich der Diffusion” (“Virchow’s Archive”, XX, 37) and 3) “Zur Frage des endosmotischen Verhalten des Eiweis” (ibid., XX, 39); veins" ("Med. Vestn.", 1863, 37 and 38); "Preliminary report on the epidemic of recurrent fever in St. Petersburg" ("Med. Vest.", 1864, No. 46); "On the etiology of recurrent fever in St. Petersburg" ("Med. V.", 1865, No. 1); "Course of the clinic of internal diseases" (issue 1 - 1867; issue 2 - 1868 and issue 3 - 1875); “Preliminary report on the cholera epidemic” (appendix to No. 3 “Epidemiological leaflet” for 1871); “Archive of the Clinic of Internal Diseases” (7 volumes from 1869 to 1881); “Clinical lectures”, 3 issues; Since 1881, the “Weekly Clinical Newspaper” was published under his editorship.

Doctors

Doctors of the past

Botkin Sergey Petrovich

Sergei Botkin was born on September 17, 1832 in Moscow, into a merchant family involved in the tea trade. In 1855 he graduated from Moscow University, Faculty of Medicine. At the same time he participated in the Crimean company - he went with a sanitary detachment to Crimea, where he was lucky enough to work under the leadership of N.I. Pirogov, the great surgeon. Working in a military hospital gave Botkin the necessary skills. Then Sergei Petrovich worked in St. Petersburg, in the therapy clinic of the Medical-Surgical Academy. In 1861, the 29-year-old scientist received the title of professor and headed the academy’s clinic for almost three decades.

To study the problems of scientific medicine and physiology, in 1860-1861 he created the first experimental laboratory in Russia at his clinic, where tests were carried out and the effect of drugs on the body was studied. Botkin was one of the first to prove the need for an individual approach to each patient, taking into account the characteristics of his age, anatomy, state of the nervous system, and living conditions.
He was one of the first to notice that the disease affects the entire body through the nervous system. His views were taken up by leading doctors, so Botkin is spoken of as the creator of the Russian scientific medical school.
Botkin combined scientific and social activities. With his participation, the first women's medical courses were opened in St. Petersburg in 1872.
Together with physiologist I.M. Sechenov, he was the first in Russia to provide the opportunity for female doctors to work in the department he headed. In 1861, he opened the first free outpatient clinic at his clinic; Thanks to his persistence, the first free hospitals for the poor appeared in St. Petersburg and other cities.
On his initiative, the free Alexander Hospital was built, which now bears his name. Thousands of patients could say that they were healed by the wonderful doctor Botkin. Dozens of scientists were proud to call themselves his students. In 1873, Botkin became a physician.
During the Russian-Turkish War, he sought to improve the living conditions of soldiers and the work of hospitals. ON THE. Nekrasov dedicated one of the chapters of his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” to him.
The great Russian doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin died on December 24, 1889 in the French city of Menton.

S.P. Botkin was a participant in the Crimean War (1853–1856). He developed a first aid system, determined the stages of evacuation of the wounded from the battlefield, and formulated the main provisions for carrying out anti-epidemiological measures.
In his works on military field medicine, special attention was paid to the hygiene and nutrition of soldiers and the organization of their life. Sergei Petrovich Botkin was sure that only a true military doctor who perfectly knows the life of his charges and is aware of what diseases they most often suffer from.

Military field medicine concept

Botkin's disease

Sergei Petrovich predicted the mechanisms of development of this pathology. He was the first to suggest its viral nature, outlined the methods of infection, proved its danger to the liver and the body as a whole, and highlighted the importance of maintaining hygiene.

Sergei Petrovich Botkin was at the origins of the creation of an epidemiological scientific society, the goal of which was the prevention of infectious diseases. It united doctors and educators and published the Epidemic Leaflet. As part of the community's work, Botkin studied the epidemic of plague, cholera, typhus, smallpox, diphtheria and scarlet fever.

Epidemiological Scientific Society

Contributions to women's medical education

We owe to Sergei Petrovich Botkin:

using a thermometer;
taking tests;
sanitary and epidemiological service;
free medicine;
the emergence of women doctors;
Crimean resorts;
the concept of “velvet season,” when society ladies in velvet dresses followed the Empress, who came to Crimea in the fall.

Main scientific works

“On the absorption of fat in the intestines” (1860);
“Course in the clinic of internal diseases.” Issue 1-3. (1867-1875);
“On the mobility of the kidneys” (1884);
"Based's Sickness and Weary Heart" (1885);
“Clinical lectures by S.P. Botkin. Issue 1-3. (1887-1888).

Contribution to the development of medicine

Founder of the largest therapeutic school(45 out of 106 students of S.P. Botkin headed clinical departments in various cities of Russia, 85 defended dissertations for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Among his students are I.P. Pavlov, A.G. Polotebnov, V.G. Lashkevich, N.Ya.Chistovich, V.P.Obraztsov, V.N.Sirotinin, V.A.Manassein, I.I.Molesson, N.P.Simanovsky, N.A.Vinogradov, etc.)

In 1860-1861 organized the first clinical experimental laboratory, where the first studies in Russia on clinical pharmacology and experimental therapy were conducted.

First in the history of Russian science carried out fruitful union of medicine and physiology. He widely introduced physical and chemical research methods into the clinic.

Created a new direction in medicine, called nervism by I.P. Pavlov. His views were based on an understanding of the organism as a whole, inextricably linked with its environment and controlled by the nervous system. He considered the nervous system to be the main carrier of the unity of the body.

First described the clinical picture of infectious hepatitis ("Botkin's disease" ), recognizing it as a common infectious disease. He contributed a lot to the study of rheumatism, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, lung diseases, typhus, typhoid and relapsing fever.

In the clinic of S.P. Botkin, after careful scientific development, there was oxygen therapy was used for the first time for diseases of the lungs, bronchi and nervous systems s.

Together with students established the participation of the spleen in blood deposition(1875), which was later confirmed by the experiments of the English physiologist J. Barcroft.

Essentially added to the description of the Graves disease clinic(named after the German doctor Basedow, who described it in 1840). Author of the neurogenic theory of the pathogenesis of Graves' disease.
Gave a comprehensive description of the clinic of a mobile kidney and a scientifically substantiated method for its recognition. Revealed the difference between nephritis and nephrosis.
He was the first to describe lobar pneumonia in detail, its etiology and pathogenesis.

One of the founders of military field therapy.

He expressed the thesis about the existence of physiological mechanisms in the body that give it the ability to fight diseases.

Together with students studied the effect of drugs in experiments and clinics(digitalis, lily of the valley, adonis, potassium salts, etc.).
S.P. Botkin considered medicine as “the science of preventing diseases and treating the patient.”

appeared active public figure. In 1878 he was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors, remaining in this post until the last days of his life. He contributed to the founding of women's medical courses in 1872.

Initiator of the organization of free medical care “for the poor classes”, the construction of the Alexander Barracks Hospital in St. Petersburg, which became exemplary in medical and scientific terms.

In 1880 he began publishing “ Weekly clinical newspaper».

In 1882, as chairman of the Subcommittee on School and Sanitary Supervision in City Schools successfully organized the fight against a severe epidemic of diphtheria and scarlet fever.